Big Second Half Keys Cushard's NY League 5 Title

[Tom Kessenich]

Great players are recognized by how well they do in the clutch. Great fantasy teams often have the same attribute. A big stretch run is quite often the key to a successful fantasy season and a league championship.



That was definitely the case for Dave Cushard’s team, which won the New York League 5 title in the NFBC this season.



For the first half of the season, it appeared Cushard’s team wasn’t going to make a run at the league title. But once the second half of the season began, everything changed – for the better.



“We were stuck in the middle of the pack before the All-Star break and just couldn’t get anything going,” said Cushard, a 32-year-old financial advisor who also works for the fantasy site, LeaderboardSports.com. “Finally we started to really produce. It was almost too late, but we pulled ahead in the final week and stayed there.”



Cushard said his connection with Leaderboard Sports paid big dividends in his team’s NFBC success.



“We used a lot of research from (the site),” he said, “and tapped the tips and ideas of about 30 different fantasy gamers. My partner (Justin Esposito) and I spent quite a bit of time doing mock drafts do we had a good feel for the draft flow this year.



“We wanted to keep our ‘risky’ picks to pitching, figuring we could go with middle relievers out of free agency if we couldn’t nail some starting pitching. We wanted to make sure we covered stolen bases and power numbers, participate in the saves category and then work pitching throughout the year.



“Sadly, Alex Sanchez produced nowhere close to the speed numbers we wanted, yet our closers (Joe Nathan and Danys Baez) produced well and made up for some ground we felt we lost in stolen bases.”



One of the big keys for Cushard’s championship season was hitting big on the Waiver Wire throughout the year. Among the free agents his team picked up that played well were Tony Womack, Chris Carpenter, Shingo Takatsu, Darin Erstad, Omar Vizquel, Placido Polanco, Ty Wigginton, Wily Mo Pena, Tim Worrell, Calvin Pickering and Pat Burrell.



“We dominated batting average all year, which really allowed us to play with the free-agent wire at times,” Cushard said. “We didn’t have any other real strengths, but had productive scoring in almost every category.”



With one league championship under his belt, Cushard said he can’t wait for the 2005 event to begin.



“We had a great time and look forward to playing again in the NFBC in the future,” he said.



[ November 02, 2004, 09:55 AM: Message edited by: Tom Kessenich ]